Google Assistant Now Lets You Send Money to a Friend Using Google Pay

Google announced in a blog post yesterday that you can now send money to your contacts using Google Assistant. The service utilizes Google Pay and it’s not needed for the sender or recipient to own previously established a Google Pay account according to the post. If the sender doesn’t have Google Pay configured, Assistant can prompt them to set up an account.

“Starting today, you can ask your Google Assistant to pay your friends back with Google Pay…You can simply send or request cash from your contacts—for free—using the Assistant on android and iOS phones within the U.S. within the coming months, you’ll be able to send money on voice-activated speakers like Google Home.”

It seems the recipient also needs to set up Google Pay to receive the funds. A Google representative sent me this link that indicates that claiming funds will need a Google Pay account. Also, you can’t use a credit card to send money. you need to link your Google Pay account to a debit card to use the service.

MONEY TRANSFER COULD BE A BUSINESS

Google desires to remain out ahead of Amazon for providing this service, however the real competition in this area is PayPal. PayPal conducted $451 billion in transactions in 2017. That wasn’t entirely cash transfer because PayPal is additionally used for purchases. However, a minimum of $34 billion of that was PayPal’s Venmo division which can also be used for purchases but built its business on a straightforward way for a largely millennial user base to send cash to each other.

Google charges no fees for cash transfers similar to services from Venmo, PayPal and sq. money once linking to debit cards or directly to bank accounts. However, every of these competing services do supply the choice to use a credit card for a 2.9%-3% fee.

THE BIGGER PLAY IS USING GOOGLE ASSISTANT FOR COMMERCE

Google Assistant desires to become integral to all parts of consumers’ lives and money transfer could be a way to build familiarity. A Morning Consult survey in 2017 found that 11 november of millennials reported using Venmo many times per day. Google Assistant and by extension, Google Pay, would love to become a part of those daily habits whether or not for money transfer or purchases. money transfer could be a notably great way to grow the number of Google Pay users as a result of it’s a viral component. If somebody sends you money via Google Pay, you would like to establish an account to receive the money. Then you have got a Google Pay account and there’s no friction for using it for purchases on mobile or through Google Assistant in the future.

Google is concentrated on voice commerce and removing payment friction is not any doubt a goal. Earlier this week the company declared shopping Actions for Google Assistant. This feature integrates Google product search through Google Assistant directly into the purchase process. Google only takes a fee once an acquisition is completed. you’ll see how money transfer and shopping all link together when the first step is to get users accustomed to using Google Pay through Google Assistant.